I’ve been there, and worse. Last time round, I was 220lbs, at the same height as you, unable to do a single pull up or walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath. At this point, my Bench TM was 60kg, roughly comparable to where you are now.
What I did was:
Cut calories drastically, and embedded habits, nutritionally, that I can still call on to this day to support me in losing weight or preventing fat gain.
Started lifting with real skull splitting intensity twice a week (schedule was limited). High rep squats and extremely high volume trap bar deadlifts, plus “some” stuff for the upper body. Occasional early morning Cardio was included, probably once a week.
Fast forward 6 months (ish), and I weighed 180lbs, was closing in on a 100kg bench and had added very significantly to my squat.
What I would do differently if I was to do the same again:
Cut calories less drastically and include some conditioning.
Include more quality fat sources in my diet. I totally neglected this last time and had some minor hormonal issues.
What does your program say you should do in this situation for barbell bench? If silent, I’d stick with the same weight. I also would not do any reps on incline by lifting your butt off the bench.
Doesn’t say anything about what to do after hitting RPE 10.
I doubt I will be able to go with 150 for 3 sets of 6 given today’s bench, but I can give it a shot I guess.
The problem is that, if I go hard on barbell bench, I end up struggling on incline bench (as today).
So do you think its best to do 3x6 with 145 again? It’s such a poverty bench, surprised I am plateueud here Lol.
IMO, RPE 10 should not be used all that often if it is a true RPE 10. Also, you are just learning how to do the barbell bench. Don’t sacrifice form while you are learning a lift just so you can get the reps. I would drop down in weight to be able to use good form.
I used to do barbell bench before.
I plauteud at 135 for a long time so I got frustrated and switched to dumbbell bench.
I think form isn’t a big problem.
I initially couldn’t bench the bar when I first started so it is still a little bit of an improvement, but 145 is definitely still poverty.
Let me see what happens and how I feel during warmups next week and if I can do 150. I think surely though even if I get 3x6, last set will be a killer grinder.
Form is an ongoing process. I still am working on form, still working on not cheating form when a lift gets hard.
It’s tempting to make progress now, but focus on long term progress. If you are still struggling with 150 lbs in 3 months, then something is wrong. I can’t make week to week progress like that. I spend a lot of time doing RPE 5 - 8 sets to push up my volume with the hopes that I am building a foundation which I can lift more in a year. If I can get 25 lbs in a year on bench, I am very happy. Part of being able to do that is to do your lifts with intention and sticking to how they should be done. I am not saying 25 lbs in a year is a good goal for you. It isn’t based on where you are currently. I think 50-75 lbs in a year is a good goal though. 50 lbs would have you doing sets of 6 with about 200 lbs.
@supercardrives good on you for taking advice and putting the work in. As everyone has said, stop thinking about the future. Just keep putting the work in every day.
As something of an aside, the quantity and quality of feedback in this log is borderline incredible. These are some experienced folks, with the strength and physiques to show, showing up to “coach” you daily. Outstanding community here.
@supercardrives just to chip in here id 100% agree having cut calories drastically previously I’m dieting now at a much more moderate deficit and it’s a much better process in terms of hunger, energy and quality of training.
An important thing to remember with any online program it’s generic advice. Jeff doesn’t know you, your situation or your current physique. We’re all different, IMO based on your picture you need to be dieting at a deficit at a moderate level for months not weeks and focusing on quality of food.
What is “moderate” deficit? The guide suggests 15%, which is around 400 calories for me. My maintenance is 2500, I’m at 2080 right now. I’m also trying to recomp with this deficit.
Well it takes a pound of fat equates to 3500 as a rule of thumb. Therefore with your 400 calorie per day deficit your losing just under 1lb per week. If 2500 is truly your maintenance I’d say this was moderate. Best way to judge if this is sufficient is to continue to weigh yourself each morning after a piss, naked and before you eat/drink and then divide by 7 at the end of each week to give you an average weight.
Do this after 2 weeks of dieting to gauge the rate of fat loss. If it’s in excess of 1lb per week after the 3rd of 4th week than it’s more than a moderate deficit. If it’s less I’d consider chucking in some conditioning work and walking more. Walking more is a bonus no matter the goal. Reducing calories is really a last option. If it’s more than you can afford to increase calories slightly and rinse and repeat continuously analysing data based on daily weigh ins
IMO slow and steady wins the race especially in your position where you stand a realistic change of body recomp given your lack of experience in dieting and a progressive training program. After months of this approach you won’t look like a skeleton, you should have more visible muscle and definition. You should also feel a difference in yourself in terms of well-being which is an awesome underrated side effect.
That may be true today (but keep in mind you don’t really know until you’ve been tracking; calculators are starting points), but it will change as you go. Like @dagill2 pointed out, you’ll just have to adjust to stay in your sustainable weekly window of weight loss (that was an awesome phrase).
I’ve always been very sad to discover how low my calories eventually have to get. Another reason to just go one day at a time!
Yeah I’m only aiming for 1 lb a week so hopefully I can recomp.
Yeah agreed. I’m doing 10-15k steps per day, I guess I will add in some LISS (10-15 mins) every other day or something to my routine.
Indeed. I also don’t want to lose strength this time so I have to be careful while I’m doing this (no crash dieting etcetra).
Let’s see what happens in the next few weeks. I’m around 79-80kg right now at 6’0", maybe I’ll see around 77kg as to how things are looking.
I did diet very hard in 2020 and went down to 66kg (thats not a typo, 66kg) but I still had a high bodyfat percentage. This time I need to be careful and I also don’t want to be in a caloric deficit for as long, that shit tears you apart (when I was 66kg I was down to 1200 calories or some ridiculous number every day).
I don’t want to speak for @aholding88 but when I say conditioning, I mean more intense training than LISS. LISS, to me, would be 30+ minutes of running or something. Conditioning would be something more intense, over a shorter period.
I guess I can add some HIIT once weight loss slows down.
I really don’t want to go under 76kg though, thats 167 lb. For 6’0" thats starting to get into the shitty territory.
I just want to get down to a 30-31 inch waist (around belly button) and then focus more on mass gaining.
I went all the way down to 66kg (then rebounded hard to 83kg), I think this time I need something sustainable, long phases of cutting really never work for me.
I started off skinny fat with zero muscle. I ate clean and logged every fucking gram and was a nazi about consistency day to day. Put on a “ton” of muscle, same body fat, but looked way better.
I’m not saying don’t follow this guys plan, because you should. All I’m saying is even when “fat”, having muscle greatly offsets the look.
, I’ll become a skeleton by then 